Alpha's Servant: The Finale

“I-I’m not staring at anything,” I said to Millena as the ghostly image of Primrose, a former fellow slave, seemed to fade into the woodwork behind my friend. I blinked, squeezing my eyes tight and opening them again.

Had I really just seen that? It couldn’t possibly have been her.

My heart galloped in my throat as I tried to brush it off. How could that be? Primrose was dead, killed by Alpha Ares’s semen after being chosen for his mistress on the night he came to visit the pack. There was no way she could have been standing right behind Millena.

I must have had the sun in my eyes when I opened the curtain over the sink, causing them to water and my vision to blur. Besides, my head felt fuzzy, and I had a slight headache.

I gave my head a shake and forced a smile at Millena.

“Really, I’m fine. You should go about your work, though, before the headmaster yells at you. I’ll see you later, okay?” I shuffled Millena out the door of the kitchen again, before she could spy the broken plate on the floor and start asking questions.

“Okay,” she said, after giving me the side-eye. “As long as you are all right.”

“I am,” I said, trying to mask my shakiness.

With a promise to check on me later, Millena finally left. I hurriedly picked up the pieces of broken china and disposed of them before also exiting the kitchen.

I still wasn’t feeling well, my neck aching where Ares had delivered his bite, the mate mark that saved my life after the vampire Aleister had attacked me. I put my fingers to it. It felt red and angry. I needed to find a mirror and examine it.

My flesh crawled as I walked down the long corridor toward the powder room at the end of the hall and around the corner.

It was as if a thousand tiny bugs decided to travel over my body. I jumped at every shadow, expecting to see Primrose materializing out of thin air again. Or another disembodied spirit.

Just as I reached the end of the corridor, a door opened, and Scarlette stepped into my path.

I gasped and jerked involuntarily.

“Oh Goddess, what’s wrong, child? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

I grabbed for her arm, my heart thrumming in my chest as I crumpled a little. “I might have,” I breathed with my hand fluttering to my chest.

Scarlette’s eyes grew wide as she attempted to steady me. She pulled the door closed behind her, her eyes darting around the area, before she led me around the corner.

We went down a hall and around another corner before she finally stopped and turned to me with a stern gaze. “You need to watch what you say, Skyler. Don’t talk like that where others can hear you.”

Her words came out in a hiss as her eyes narrowed even more. She looked around cautiously again, still with her hand holding firmly onto my arm.

“I’m sorry, Scarlette. I wasn’t thinking.”

“Yes, well, you need to use that brain of yours and think before you speak,” she admonished.

Finally, she let go of my arm and took a step back. My hand automatically went to where she had gripped me, rubbing my arm absently.

She hadn’t been holding it that hard, but I was so nervous and felt guilty for worrying her that I couldn’t keep still.

It was my turn to look around and make sure no one was within hearing distance before talking. “I think I might have seen a ghost. Primrose.”

Scarlette’s eyebrows shot up beneath her bangs. “Primrose?” she asked incredulously. “Why in the world would she be haunting you?”

I shrugged and chewed on my thumbnail for a minute. “I don’t know. Maybe I was seeing things.”

Scarlette nodded. “That sounds about right. You miss the girl and feel bad that she died, so your mind is recreating her image, which appears at the edge of your vision. But when you really look, obviously, she’s not there. It’s just a normal stress reaction.”

She didn’t wait for me to respond and seemed completely satisfied with that explanation. It made me feel a bit better too. “Now, I’ve got to get back to my duties, before I get into trouble.”

I hugged her and turned back down the hall to the powder room. Once inside, I peered in the mirror, examining the mate mark on my neck. It didn’t look as bad as it had felt a little while ago. It was a little red, but not flaming.

My eyes dropped down to the place where the vampire had bit me. I pivoted this way and that, trying to catch the wound in the light from different angles. It was barely there anymore, faded to a slight silver line. Ares’s mate mark had taken care of it nicely.

A softness was soothing my heart, chasing my anxiety away.

I recalled my conversation with Ares last night. He had mentioned sending me to Wolf Court to protect me from the vampires. But that was before he had cradled me in his arms, nuzzled me, and had sworn to protect me. Maybe he had changed his mind?

I could only hope so. I wanted to stay here with him, cuddled together, inseparable, now that we were officially mates.

Besides, I still needed time to heal from my ordeal. Between being bitten by Aleister, receiving Alpha Ares’s mark, being in a coma, and seeing the ghost of Primrose, I was not at 100 percent.

Despite my neck looking a little better, I felt weak, slightly dizzy, and the headache that had started out as a dull pain was now throbbing.

Having been given the mate mark, surely I was no longer a slave, so rather than doing chores, I sought the shade of the garden where I spread out on a lounger and rested as I watched birds leap from branch to branch, singing in sun-dappled bushes.

For the next few hours, I tried to relax my mind and maybe get a little sleep to let my body heal, but I couldn’t stop thinking about everything that had transpired over the last few days, least of all thinking I saw Primrose’s ghost.

Although I still felt uneasy, the brief talk with Scarlette had made me feel a little bit better. At least I wasn’t jumping at every sound I heard.

I had finally resigned myself to the fact that I wasn’t going to sleep and contemplated going inside to get myself something to drink when I caught sight of Millena walking toward me.

I waved and smiled, then rose to meet her halfway. We hugged briefly, and then a gust of wind sprang up and smacked a hank of her hair in my face.

I brushed it away with a laugh, and Millena laughed too. “What brings you here?” I asked after we stopped chuckling.

“I told you I would check on you again. I’ve been worried about you. This morning, in the kitchen, you looked so pale, and the room was freezing when I stood in the entrance. The chill passed right through me.”

The blood in my veins ran cold, and a shiver shot down my spine. I stared at her with my mouth open and eyes wide.

“Freezing?” I said, and it was part question, part statement because I was so confused I didn’t know what to think. Ares would never keep his house at a freezing temperature, and I do not remember it being such.

Scarlette had almost convinced me it had all been a figment of my imagination due to stress, and I’d felt better after our talk for the rest of the day.

But now Millena sounded like she’d really felt a coldness pass through her, and I know of only one thing to cause that—the presence of a ghost. And it would make sense because she was standing closer to the ghost than I was.

“Yeah. It caused me to shiver,” Millena said with a frown that drew two crease marks between her eyes. “Didn’t you notice?”

What was I supposed to say? Remembering Scarlette’s warnings from earlier today, I looked around to make sure no one was within earshot.

“Was it warm in the hallway as you left?” I asked.

She nodded, and I swallowed thickly. Then that meant it wasn’t my imagination; I had really seen Primrose’s ghost.

My heart started racing in my chest, and I placed a palm over the afflicted area, trying to calm it down.

Millena looked at me with concern, but when she opened her mouth to speak, another voice intruded, cutting her off.

“Get over here, Skyler.” It was the headmaster, his face twisted in fury. “The alpha wants to see you in his chamber. Now!”

I winced and shot an apologetic glance at Millena before I ran off to follow the headmaster. He mumbled along the way, but I wisely kept quiet and followed him back into the house and up the servant’s stairs.

With each step, I felt dread licking at my nerves. Last night, Ares and I had last parted on good terms, after some tenderness, yet this sounded urgent. But I knew how his moods changed quickly at the least provocation.

Had he heard about me seeing ghosts? Was he going to yell at me for some other infraction he thought I had committed?

Or maybe it was just the headmaster that was acting urgently and, really, Ares just wanted to talk. The last time we’d seen each other, he practically admitted he cared for me. Maybe this was just about him wanting to spend time with me.

That thought lifted my mood a bit so that by the time the headmaster opened the door and practically shoved me inside, I was smiling.

Ares stood in the center of the room. And he wasn’t smiling. In fact, he looked pissed. Thin, white lines formed at the corners of his mouth.

“You wanted to see me, Alpha?” I said, the smile slipping a little from my face.

“Pack your things. You’re going to Werewolf Court.”

I couldn’t believe it. He really was going to send me away. Our tender moments the night before had had no effect on him whatsoever. I stared at him and his ruthless expression then rushed out of the room.

Back in my room, I ransacked my dresser drawers, throwing shirts, skirts, jeans, and underwear into a suitcase as hurriedly as I could. Fine. I wouldn’t spend a moment longer than I had to under this wolf’s roof.

Cyrus was waiting for me at my door and when I emerged, stuffed suitcase and toiletry bag in hand, he escorted me downstairs.

When I saw Ares standing by the front door, I looked up at him and my heart lurched. The angry lump in my throat turned to self-pity and heartbreak and my voice squeaked out, “You’re really sending me away?”

Ares’s jaw clenched, and he gave one stiff nod. Cyrus took my arm and gently pulled me outside and then helped me get into the car.

As we drove off, I looked out the back window with hot tears in my eyes as Ares stood there, unmoving, watching me leave.